Warner Bros. Passes $2 Billion At 2017 Domestic Box Office

Warner Bros. passed the $2 billion mark at the 2017 domestic box office Sunday, just days after topping the $5 billion plateau globally. It’s been a mostly up year for Warner Bros. in theaters both stateside and overseas, thanks to a pair of bona fide blockbusters with the superhero smash Wonder Woman and horror blockbuster IT.


Wonder Woman topped the summer movie season box office domestically and ended its run in November with $412.5 million, while IT dominated the fall moviegoing season with $327.3 million as it nears the end of its run stateside. Both films were also big winners overseas, with Wonder Woman and IT scoring an additional $409.2 million and $366.8 million, respectively, in foreign ticket sales.


Now, with three more weekends left in the holiday moviegoing season, The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. has pushed past the $2 billion box office mark domestically for only the second time in the studio’s history. The last time the studio passed the $2 billion mark was in 2009, when it was propelled by the hits Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($301.9 million) and The Hangover ($277.3 million).


While Wonder Woman and IT were the biggest performers for Warner Bros. in 2017, several other films helped bolster the studio’s bottom line stateside, including Dunkirk ($188 million), The LEGO Batman Movie ($175.7 million), Kong: Skull Island ($168 million) and Annabelle: Creation ($102 million). Annabelle: Creation, the latest offering from the studio’s lucrative Conjuring Universe was a particular boon for the Warner Bros., since the film cost a mere $15 million to produce.


Also helping Warner Bros. reach the $2 billion mark domestically was Justice League (which has a running stateside tally of $212 million), even though the film is considered a box office disappointment. Earnings also fell far short of expectations for Blade Runner 2049, which quickly lost its bearings after underperforming in its opening weekend in October and is nearing the conclusion of its domestic run with close to $91 million in ticket sales. Perhaps the biggest hit the studio took this year, however, came in May with the box office bomb King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which earned $39.1 million domestically against a $175 billion budget.


As stellar a year as Warner Bros. has had, its not expected to be the top-earning studio in 2017 when all is said and done. According to The Wrap, while the studio currently has 20 percent of the market share, Warner Bros.’ domestic box office crown is expected to be snatched away by Disney when Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens this week. Debuting on 4,100 screens Friday, The Last Jedi is projected to make north of $200 million in its opening frame.